Doris and Doreen

Doreen (Patricia Routledge) and Doris (Prunella Scales) work together in an office in some kind of company - never really specified - which is facing cuts in some of its branches. Their office lacks a light bulb, a lampshade, and some Venetian blind slats, and not much work is done while the ladies gossip.

We're in typical Bennett territory here; strong female characters, the minutiae of everyday life. Although Pete Postlethwaite and Joan Sanderson do feature in this play, their appearances are short, and the plot mainly hangs on Doris and Doreen and how they slowly realise that there is something afoot in personnel which will have an impact on their cosy workplace.

Bennett has an eye for the mundane - green forms, what someone's husband used to do, whether the washbasin plug was stolen by another department - and manages to make a situation where not very much happens appear very enjoyable. Routledge and Scales are both regular collaborators with Bennett, and it is interesting to compare their roles here with others from the same writer.

When this play appeared in print it was re-titled 'Green Forms', somehow putting the focus away from the ladies and on to the paperwork. I like the title 'Doris and Doreen' better. I like the way these ladies rub together and deal with the dragon in their midst. A fun play, well written and very true to life.

Doris and Doreen are the sole members of a department at a large company who spend most of their day gossiping, backbiting, complaining and, occasionally, working. Doris (played by Prunella Scales) is a blunt-natured, single woman with a dependent mother who is intelligent but a bit lazy. She obviously could be doing more than she is but chooses not to, wielding her nearly encyclopedic knowledge of rules and procedures as both shield and sword. Doreen (played by Patricia Routledge) is a slightly spacy married woman who lords her married status frequently over Doris. She comes across as the kind of woman who seems nice but really isn't. The women don't particularly like each other but years of working together have created a tacit agreement to do as little work as they can possibly get away with. Unfortunately, the winds of change blow and the elements of their insulated world are scattered.

The play is well structured and the random topics of conversation (forms with numbers, requisitions, interdepartmental feuds) that make-up the first act come back to haunt the two women in the second act as it becomes clearer and clearer that something is afoot in their department that will alter their lives and not for the better. Scales and Routledge are both brilliant in their roles creating very real characters who are obsessed with the trivial and mundane and ill-prepared for a new office environment.

My only criticism is that the context they work in is so vaguely defined. It's never clear precisely what their department is or what the company they work for is about. It's probably purposeful to give the presentation a more universal feel but while the characters feel very real, the world they live in lacks that grounding. But overall, a very entertaining play.

P. S. My favorite quote towards the end: "Doris, I'm frightened! Look at the point on those pencils!"